AWS Identification and Location

Site location is defined by the latitude and longitude which is determined by various methods: sun shots, angles to geographical features, aircraft data, ice breaker data, the platform location system of Service ARGOS, and the Global Positioning System. AWS elevation is obtained by barometry and should be correct to within +/- 5 meters. Site names were introduced for convenience. Table 3.1 lists the site name, ARGOS identification number, latitude, longitude, elevation, start date for the site, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) number for the site. Figures 2, 3, 4, and 5 show the locations of the AWS units in the Antarctic for 1994.

The ARGOS identification number (ID) is used to identify the data sets distributed to the users. AWS units are sometimes moved from one location to another, and as a result, the ID at a given site may change from year to year. Table 3.2 lists the site name with the ARGOS ID, the site start date, and the ID start and stop dates.